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“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
― Patrick Henry

Now a report has been released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that looks closely at numerous emails to and from IRS official Lois Lerner. Breitbart reports:

The emails show concern from Lerner about the Citizens United case decision hurting Democrats in the upcoming Senate elections. One document shows Lerner saying the Supreme Court gave the issue to the IRS “to fix the problem.”

She said, “The Supreme Court dealt a huge blow, overturning a 100-year old precedent that basically corporations couldn’t give directly to political campaigns. And everyone is up in arms because they don’t like it. The Federal Election Commission can’t do anything about it. They want the IRS to fix the problem.”After a senior advisor emailed her about the political danger Democrats could be placed in, she replied in an e-mail, “Perhaps the FEC will save the day.”

In regards to an email about the businessmen and benefactor Koch brothers, Lerner wrote:

“We do need a c4 project next year,” Lerner wrote. While she initially said, “my object is not to look for political activity,” later in the exchange she acknowledged that it will examine political activity. “We need to be cautious so it isn’t a per se political project. More a c4 project that will look at levels of lobbying and pol. Activity along with exempt activity.”

The Oversight Committee points out that Lerner mishandled 6103 taxpayer information by dealing with such data from her personal e-mail account. Lerner, however, told Congress under oath in Novmber of 2013, “I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations.” In a November 2013 letter from Daniel Werfel, Werfel writes, “We do not permit IRS officials to send taxpayer information to their personal email addresses.” Werfel stresses that this is the case even if information is redacted.

The report concludes:

Ultimately, the Oversight report says, Lerner personally placed all Tea Party applicants through a “multi-tier review.” An IRS employee testified that Lerner “sent [him an] e-mail saying that when these cases need to go through multi-tier review and they will eventually have to go to [Judy Kindell, Lerner’s senior technical advisor] and the Chief Counsel’s office.” A D.C. IRS employee said this level of scrutiny had no precedent.

It is abundantly clear that the IRS abused their power in targeting Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny. It is just as clear that the orders for this targeting came from the top, and were not the work of a handful of rogue agents in a regional office.

Lois Lerner pleading the 5th and refusing to testify before Congress only confirms that she has committed illegal activities. If she were innocent and had nothing to hide, she would not invoke her right against self-incrimination.

People need to be arrested for their illegal actions and IRS abuse. Those involved need to be subpoenaed and compelled to testify. Administration officials that are involved need to be publicly identified and dealt with accordingly.

There must be an end to the White House lies about the scandal, and the Democrats stalling and obstruction of a proper investigation.

H/T from http://www.capitalisminstitute.org/irs-targeted-tea-party-to-help-dems/

Quotes

"If it's smart to look at the Carfax history of a used car before buying it, why should anyone object to discovering the history of politicians before electing them to serve you?" Stephen Marks

"I believe that public office is the noblest of professions, but I also believe we must hold public officials accountable. Exposing the full truth about them-the good and the bad-ultimately makes for better-educated voters and a stronger democracy." Stephen Marks in Politics Magazine.